Who said that melons and watermelons were the only star fruits of summer? With its beautiful orange tint and fleshy shape, the apricot is a fruit full of antioxidants and vitamins B, C and E as well as provitamins A. It also contains iron, magnesium, selenium, potassium, zinc, copper and malic acid. Something to give us a boost! In short, we would be wrong to deprive ourselves of it. However, many apricot lovers make a mistake when they eat it: they throw away the pit. However, the pits of this summer fruit can do us a lot of service. Grandmother explains here how to recycle apricot kernels on a daily basis. You’ll never want to throw them away again!
1) Apricot kernels to weight a pie
When you pre-bake the dough for your pie or quiche, it may happen that the dough starts to swell. To avoid this, beans or a smaller pie pan are often used. However, you can also use cherry pits… or a good handful of apricot kernels to weight the dough when you have to blind bake it! Once your dough starts to brown well, you can remove them.
2) Grow an apricot tree
Did you know he was possible to germinate most fruit pits ? The avocado is better known, but you can also grow a pretty plant from a seed of mango, peach, lychee, nectarine, cherry, date and of course also apricot. To give birth to a fruit tree, however, it is necessary observe a period of germination and have a little patience. Often, for the apricot, it is ideally advised to use stratification to create the ideal conditions for the seeds to germinate. To do this, we put them in the fridge or in a plastic bag for sixty days. Following this, the core is left to soften in a damp towel placed in a plastic bag and a warm, dry environment. As soon as the roots emerge, we can plant! After a few years, you will even get fruit.
Good to know: The plants do not work every time. Also, do not hesitate to do several to maximize your chances of success!
3) To aerate and drain the soil
Instead of clay balls at the bottom of pots of flowers or green plants, prefer apricot or peach pits. Thus, there is no need to rush to the garden center to buy what is needed to aerate the soil and ensure good drainage. To do this, let them dry in the sun for a few weeks before using them. This will prevent them from sprouting.
4) Make apricot kernel oil
If you like using natural ingredients in your beauty routine, you’ll love our recipe! It simply consists of cleaning and then drying the stones in the sun. Then, break them to get the almond inside. Once the almonds have been collected, place them in a bottle, cover with a vegetable oil of your choice and leave to macerate for 4 to 6 weeks before filtering. The oil obtained is ideal for softening and softening the skin, especially mature. Regenerating, revitalizing and toning, it allows also to look good with tired complexions.
5) An eau-de-vie with apricot kernels
Let’s finish on a high note with the recipe for making a delicious brandy with apricot kernels. To do this, melt 500 ml of water and 300 g of brown sugar in a saucepan until a syrup is obtained. You can then pour your syrup into a jar or bottle with a wide enough neck to let the pits through. Then add 60 apricot kernels and 500 ml of white alcohol at 60 or 90 volumes. Finally, close your bottle hermetically and leave to macerate for about 30 days in a storage away from light and temperature variations. Finally, filter. It’s ready ! And know that the longer you let this mixture age, the better it will get.
6) Apricot kernels to flavor the jam
Our grandmothers often added a few pits to the apricot jam to improve the taste. To avoid becoming intoxicated or making the jam bitter, break 4 kernels to recover the whole almond. To help you, you can use a nutcracker, shellfish tongs or a vice to pinch them flat, for example. It is very important not to crush or damage the almonds. Then, prepare your jam as usual, adding the almonds during cooking. Remove them when the recipe is finished.
If you already loved these sweet, plump little fruits, we’re sure you’ll love them even more after discovering these uses for their pit! Do not hesitate to tell us if you intend to test them or if you know of other ways to recycle them.
